Selective signaling device.



E. R. GILL. SELECTIVE SIGNALING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4, 1908.

1,004,566. Patented Oct. 3, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

E. R. GILL- SELECTIVE SIGNALING'DEVTCE.

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W l. 6 W P a m V JM m B m m m a w J 6 v 5 UNITED STATES ArENr oFFIoE.

EDWIN R. GILL, OF'YONKERS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO HOWARD E. MERRELI), OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND ORLO J. HAMLIN, 0F SMETHPORT,

PENNSYLVANIA.'

SELECTIVE SIGNALING DEVICE.

Application filed September 4, 1908. Serial No. 451,662.

improvement in that class of electro-mag-.

netic selecting devices, whereby any one of a number of telegraph or telephone stations 7 may be signaled at will Without disturbing other stations on the same line. My improved selector can also be apphed to signaling or calling in other connections.

One advantage of the present invention is that it makes it possible to call any one of a groupof stations with the minimum loss of time and'with complete certainty.

Another advantage of this invention is that it makes it possible to manufacture all instrm'nents alike and to prepare any given instrument for operation by any desired combination within its scope, by the simplest possible means, easily and rapidly adjusted by anyone.

My present invention comprises certain other improvements and advantages some of which are a pplicableto a large class of selective instruments for the purposes named, which ad antages are set forth hereinafter.

My present invention is shown in a preferred illustrative form in the accompany.

ing drawings wherein Figure 1 is a front View of my selector with the cover removed, Fig. 2. is a side elevation' thereof, looking from the right ..in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a similar. view looking from the left in Fig. 1, and showing a part. of the supporting frzimeworkbroken away, Fig. 4 is a perspective of a detail, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the preferred form tional rebound preventer.

The base *1 carries the entire selector to .which current is brought by appropriate binding posts, as, for instance those shown at 2. The selector is directly-actuated by the magnet 3, whose armature 4 hangs from a spring 5 andwhose lower and movable end is attached to abowed spring 6 whlch 1s straightened whenever the lower 'end of the armature is attracted toward the magnet poles.

Specification of Letters Patent,

of fric- Patented Oct. 3, 1911;

The mechanism thus far described is similar to that disclosed in. my Patent No. 906,523 issued to me December 15, 1908 and therefore requires no further description.

' The supporting sides 7'and 8 of the frame work carry a transverse shaft 9 upon which is mounted a fixed toothed wheel'lO at one end and, at the other end, a spiral spring 11, whereby the shaft and wheel are returned to the normal position shown when the wheel 10 isreleased. Forward movement of the wheel is produced by descent of the thin flat bail 12, pivoted at the extremity of the lever 13 which is fixed at its opposite end to the oscillatory shaft 14. The lever 13 and the pawl or bail 12 are normally maintained in their raised positions shown by the rod 15 whose lower end. is supported upon the bowed spring (3, so that, when said spring is straightened by action' of the magnet 2 the rod 15, and wit-hit the lever 13, is depressed. Under these circumstances, the pawl 12 engages one of the teeth of said wheel and impels the. same forward through the distance of one tooth. This movement of the pawl 12 is limited by the inclind stop plate 16.

The lever 13 carries an arm 17 extending downward andthcn across the instrument to a point 18 outside of the supporting plate 8, as shown in Fig. 1. The function of this arm is to control the automatic movements of the retarded circuit controller which latter will next be described.

, A pivoted shaft 19 extends across bet-ween the plates 7 and 8, and upon this shaft is carried the circuit controlling lever 20, prcferably separated from the shaft by insulation, as shown, and to which are connected wires 21, 22 through which the signaling current passes. lVhen the signal circuit is closed, the tipof thelever 29 touches the to of the lever 23, which is carried by the sha t 9 and may be adjusted thereon by means of the set screw 24. It is by this adjustment that any given instrument may be arranged for operation by any desired combination within its scope. The shaft 19 also carries an approximately horizontal arm 25, which extends outside of the plate 8, and to the end of which are pivoted the fiatside bars 26.

Between these side bars, at their lower ,ends' there turns'freely a short polished steel shaft -27 curving an"1nertia-d1sk '28; and rolling normally upon-a polished steel wire track 29 given instance, the side bar 26 will act whose inclination is preferably made adjustthrough the arm 40 and shaft 39 to push the able by fixing its outer support 30 at ditferhook into the position shown in Fig. 4, and ent points in' the slot 31. It will be seen so release the pawl 32, allowing the catchy;

that, unless supported, the wheel 28 will roll to fall upon the wheel into a position 70 down the track 29 causing the shaft 19 to wherein it will engage with the lower porturn' so. as todepress the outer end of the tion of each toot-h of said wheel-as it moves lever 20, and,.if this movement is sutficiently into engaging positions. v prolonged, the tip of the lever 20will be It will be noted that the tooth immemade to touch the tip of the lever-23, supdiately under the catch 38 when the wheel 75 posing this latter to have been brought into 10 is in normalpo'sition is cut away at the proper position. (This is shown in dotted top (see Fig. This is to prevent operalines in F ig. 2.) Normally, however, this tion of the wheel 10 during periods .of use movement of the 'disk 28 down the track 29 of any telegraphic apparatus which may be .1 is prevented by the extension 18 of the arm used in connection with the device, and also 30 17, attached to the main impelling lever 13. to facilitate bringing all the wheels of a In order to bring the arm 23 into the group back to normal by an indefinite numproper'position for control of the proper ber of quick pulsations. It is found verysignal circuit, it is necessary to revolve the convenient in many cases to connect my seshaft 9,exactly the proper distance, and this lector in circuit with telegraphic instru- 85- dista'nce will, of course, depend upon the ments in such a mannerthattheselective initial position of the lever 23 which is ad signal can be sent over the same wire that justed for each instrument by the set screw is used in telegraphing. In such a case, 241 The forward revolution of the shaft 9 while the line is idle the parts will remain ggis accomplished by successive downward as shown in Figs. 1 to 3, but while the line so movements of the pawl 12, produced by coris in use for telegraphic purposes, the quick responding successive ac'tionsof the magnet alternations of energization and denergiza- 3, and in order to prevent return of the tion of the magnet 3 will produce a relawheel 10 and shaft 9 between successive actively rapid up and down movement of the 30 t-ions of the driving pawl 12, I pr'ovide a repawl 12 which would act to drive the wheel 95 taining pawl 32 carr ed by an inclined shaft 10 forward all the time. This effect is nor- 33 having extended journals (see Fig. 1) inally prevented by the fact that the catch 34: which permit said shaft and pawl to move is supported by the hook 38 in. such a positogether 'in a direction transverse to the tion that it cannot engage with the cut down plane of the wheel 10. A catch 34: extends tooth below it. In consequence of this, the 100 from the outer face of the pawl 32 into the wheel 10 merely vibrates back and forth plane of the wheel 10, and from'the opposite under the alternate influence of the pawl 12 side of thepawl there extends a projection and the spring 11. When, however, it is 35 preferably cut away to form a terminal desired to utilize the selector for producing 40 shoulder 36. (See Fig. 4.) When the a signal, the controlling circuit is so man- 1 v wheel'10 is turned back to the normal posiaged as to preserve circuit in the coils of the tion shown by action of the'spring 11, an electro-Inagnet 3 for a relatively long period inclined wire 37 on the inner face of said of time. The pawl 12 is thus held down, wheel impinges upon the inclined under and with it the arm 17 is held away from edge Ofthe pawl 32 so as to liftit into the the disk 28, so long that said disk has time uppermost of three possible positions and to roll down the track 29'until the side bar to thrust it outward, or to the left in Fig. 1, 26 strikes the arm 40 and pushes the hook in which position the catch 34' is ready to 38 away from the shoulder 36 on the pawl 32. fall into engagement with the teeth of the This permits the catch to fall behind the wheel. The position thus produced is t-hat firstlow tooth, so that, when next the pawl 115 shown in Figs. 1 to 3. When the descent of 12- rises, the return of the wheel 10 under the the driving pawl 12 moves the wheel 10 forinfluence of the spring 11 is prevented. ward one tooth, the pawl 32 moves down- The wheel 10 is then in its starting position ward slightly until the shoulder 36 is caught and, as the subsequent teeth areall high by the gravity hook 38. In this position enough to strike the catch 34; whether sup- 120 the catch 34 is ready to engage with the ported by the hook 38 or not, each snhse upper part of'a tooth on the wheel 10, and quent downward movement of -the pawl 12, thus hold itstationary during the upward will have a permanent forward efiect upon movements of the driving pawl 12. The thewheel 10. a i hook 38 is fixed to an easily revoluble shaft It will be understood that, each time the'- 39, which also carries-an arm 40 whose lower pawl .12 and lev'e'n- 13 rise rapidly after a end projects sidewise into the path ofmeveforward movement of the wheel 10, the arm ment ofone of the side bars 26 which carry 17 pushes the disk 28 quickly back up the the disk 28, It will thus be seen, that if the track 29, while the shaft 27' slides, upon the I disk 28' is allowed to 'roll far enough in any track. During a succession of rapidly re- 3130 curring movements of the pawl, there will therefore take place a corresponding succession of slow rolling movements of the disk 28 for a very short distance down the track 29, interrupted, before the arm 40 is reached, by quick sliding movements back to normal, caused by pushes of the arm 17. It will thus be seen that, during such a succession of quick movements the pawl 32 will always be-supported by the hook 38, and the circuit controlling lever will never have time to descend far enough to intercept the path of movement of the lever 23 on the shaft 9.

. one of my instrumentsis placed at each sta- The operation whereby a signal is sent to a selected station exclusively is as followssupposing the group of stations upon a single line wire to be twenty-four or less, then tion and the levers 23 on the different shafts 9 are separately adjusted to twenty-four different positions. Instrument number one will be arranged so that a movement-of the Wheel 10 by one tooth beyond the starting position will bring its lever 23 directly under the tip of the lever 20. Instrument number two will be arranged to reach this position after two forward impulses of the wheel, and so on with the other twenty-two in succession. All of the instruments will be'arranged in a well known manner, so

that their magnets -3 are all energized simultaneously by any make and break upon the common line wire. Supposing now that station number six is to be exclusively signaled to.

brought all the instruments together to the normal position shown, will first hold the circuit through all the magnets 3 closed long enough to permit the catch 34 to engage the out 01f starting tooth. He will then produce six energizations of all the magnets in quick succession, but will sustain the last long enough to give the lever 20 time to descend. These six impulses will have brought the lever 23 at station number six directly under the lever 20, while the lever 23 in all the other instruments of the groupwill either have moved too far or not far enough. Consequently, although the levers 20 in all the grouped instruments will descend simultaneously during the last pause, only that at station number six will drop upon its corresponding lever 23. A local cireuitwill thus be controlled at station; number six only, which may be utilized to produce a temporary or a permanent local signal in any well known manner.

It is one advantage of myimprovement that it can be used to call any or all of the stations of a roup in rapid succession by one operation of t'he wheel 10. It is only necessary to produce, say twenty-four energizations of all the magnets in succession, pausing at the proper intervals corresponding to the stations wanted. whereby local signals The calling operator having essary to send over the line a large number I ofrapid impulses whereby all the wheels are brought-to their final position. The conditions existing in this position are shown in Fig. 4, wherein the arrow shows the direction of rotation of the wheel 10 in returning to normal. In telegraphic circuits the ordinary impulses used for sending messages will produce the desired effect.

The wheel 10 carries a pin 41 which comes in contact with the pawl 32 when the final position of the. wheel is reached and pushes said pawl slightly away from its engaging position. The last tooth on the wheel is beveled as shown at 44 in Fig. 4, so that, when -the spring 11 tends to drive the wheel 10 backward, this beveled surface strikes the catch 34 and completes the lateral movement of the pawl whereby the wheel 10 is freed; after which, of course, the wheel returns to normal, bringing the inclined wire 37 against the edge of the pawl and restoring it to operative position as heretofore described. hile I have shown and described .both the pin .1 and the beveled tooth 44 for freeing the wheel, it is to be understood that either of theseagencies might be used alone for this purpose without departing from my invention. The dotted lines in Fig. 4 show the position of the pawl 32 when pushed out of engagementwith the wheel.

It will be understood that my device will. ordinarily be operative without cutting away the pawl projection.35, to form the shoulder 36, but I prefer this construction as therebythe pawl is freed from both the wheel 10 and the hook 38, when it moves laterally as described, and thus accidental interference by the hook avoided.

Where a wheel, such as 10, returns rapidly to normal under the influence of a spring, such as 11, therewill be a tendency to' rebound, which might result in the pawl catching one of the operative teeth in one or more of the instruments of a group. In order to avoid this entirely, I provide the device shown on a large scale in Fig; 5. As shown, a weight is frictionally attached to the shaft 9 so as to be carried by and tend to turn with it at all times. This weight is arranged to produce a certain rotative inertia and for this purpose I may use a metal plate 42 ex- 38 is securely tending symmetrically across the shaft 9 and attached thereto by the wire 43 which presses the plate up close againstsaid shaft so as to produce a proper amountof friction.- The angular position of the plate 42 upon the shaft 9 is immaterial, and indeed this position will change constantlyduringordistriking the projectiont, the inertia plate- 42 keeps on turning for an appreciable interval of time, dragging the wire 43 around the shaft 9, and producing a continued tendency to hold the wire 37 against the pawl 32. This will serve to prevent all danger 0 rebound.

'The instrument herein described may be used in any number of grouped sta ions within the-limits of a practical size'forthe wheel 10 and a practical number of teeth thereon, and it will be seen that operation of my improved device does not involve the use of any elements required to be kept in synchronism with each other, thus eliminating a source of much uncertainty and permitting a combination of simplicity of structure with perfect reliability.

Certain details above described are capable of use in selectors difi'ering in their general' plan of operation from that herein shown, and I have claimed the same broadly, so as to cover their use in any appropriate selector.

Various changes may be made in this device without departing from the scope of my invention and I am not tobe understood as limiting myself to the details herein shown and described.

What I claim is 1. A selective signaling device comprising a toothed wheel, a circuit controlling element moved thereby and an impelling pawl for said wheel, in combination with an oscillatory shaft, a second circuit controlling element thereon, an. arm on said shaft, side bars pivoted on said arm, an inertia wheel mounted between said side bars, an inclined track whereon said wheel is adapted to roll,

' rocesses when released, a retaining pawl mounted so as to be capable of movement transverseto the plane of. the toothed wheel, -means for causing said pawl to move away from said wheel,a hook, and a projection on said pawl having a wide-shoulder near its tip for engaging with said hook and so placed as to avoid engagement with said hook when the pawl is moved away from the toothed wheel, substantially as described.

3. A selective signaling device comprising a toothed wheel, impelling means therefor, means for returning the same to normal when released and a weight frictionally con-- nected with said wheel so as to t-urntherewith, substantially as described.

4:. A selective signaling device" comprising a toothed wheel, i-mpelling means therefor,

means for returning the same to normal when released and a Weight mounted upon the wheel axle and frictic'nally attached thereto so, as to turn with it, substantially as described.

5. A selective signaling device comprising a toothed wheel, impelhng means therefor, means for returning the same to normal when released, a weight'extending across the shaft of said wheel and a wire fixed to said weight and passing over said shaft so as to create a frictional connection between the shaft and weight, substantially as described.

EDWIN n. GILL.

W'itnesses:

F. F. CRAMPTON,

. M. A., BUTLER. 

